Precursor

The Recount of My Adventures is coming soon. This will have to suffice in the mean time.

You Wouldn't Think We Take Singing Lessons

Ok, so I love my kids. I love them, I love them, I love them. Teaching is hard work and sometimes the children are not easy to handle, but I love them all the same and once you get those rewarding moments, it's all worth it. For instance, yesterday I had a major migraine and for those of you who have seen me with a migraine, you know that basically they put me on bed rest for the whole day. I can't walk, I can't look at lights without wanting to see, I throw up, and my head feels like it's going to literally pop off and I usually bawl. So needless to say, I wasn't really fit for teaching or anything else yesterday. Especially because the one thing that helps me is taking a hot bath or shower and the hot water in our apartment was off all day yesterday. Elise was sick too so we both pathetically sat at home. When dinner time came around, I realized we didn't have any keys so we couldn't leave the apartment to go. So I had to walk over to the school, which is across the street, to grab the keys as classes were ending. Kids were out in the hall and I was attacked with hugs and even smothered in kisses by Sofia. I was really touched because I didn't expect to be so missed at all. 

And then today with them, I told them the story of the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen and most of them got really into it, wanting to play the characters, and waiting to see what comes next. I didn't get to finish the story with any of my classes and some of them we're very upset. Poor Danila didn't want to leave class. He's one of the newer kids, and I find him very endearing. Next week is my last week of teaching drama for a good while, which is saddening but I've had a lot of fun and I did get to teach it for like a month.

This weekend ought to be awesome. It's our first vacation. We're leaving tomorrow night through Monday to the cities of Tallinn and Riga. I've already been to Tallinn once before and loved it so I'm way excited to go back. We're going to see an opera while we're there! I've never seen an opera before and I definitely think I should as a performing arts guru currently taking opera voice lessons. However, since we'll be staying in hostels, I don't think it's such a great idea to take my computer or ukulele with me. Thus you'll all be deprived till I return Monday night.

However, on the flipside, I'm leaving behind some nuggets of goodness. Today, you get a grand total of 3 videos. The first would be the song of the day. The second is Janese and I being goons. As aforementioned, We are Young by Fun has become our official theme song and we decided to do an ILP version. All we do is spend our evenings singing with little kids and coming up with hand motions lol. You'll see what I mean. And lastly, I've just felt in an exceptionally creative mood as of late and felt the urge to start vidding again, so I did and set one of my favorite movies/books to one of my favorite songs. 

ENJOY THE GOODIES!

Playing in the Park

Whew another week done of teaching! It's been a great week, fraught with all kinds of experiences, one of them being gaining a bunch of weight. Or at least, I probably did. This week my diet consisted of two things: Milka bars and Klasika Ice Cream. If you tasted them, that's all you would eat too. Milka Bars are just the most addicting chocolate bars ever. It's kind of frustrating because I don't even eat that much chocolate but I've had one almost every day this week. Klasika Ice Cream is made of sweetened condensed milk. You know it's a winner right there. Not only that but it has poppyseeds in it!!! SCORE! Really. They are so good. I just can't tell you how in love I am with both of these. I came to Lithuania hoping to lose weight. But alas, Milka and Klasika have crushed that dream of mine. And with that, here is the song of the day! My G chord sucks. Sorry. I just started learning barre chords like 2 days ago when I began learning this tune!

In other news, it's been quite the music filled week! On Wednesday, I began taking voice lessons with Janese from a graduate of the university here in Vilnius. Just so we're clear, Janese is a vocal performance major who likes to sing opera. I've never sang opera, like in a serious way, and was totally out of my element. We walked into the building and the whole place echoed with musical prodigies. The lessons went pretty well though. Our teacher is great even though there is a bit of a language barrier sometimes. It can also be a little frustrating. Here I am being told I need to correct my dynamics, my breathing, my posture, my soft palette while doing all of these movements and a million other things when then she tells me to just stop thinking and I'm like WTF, mate?! And by that I mean, What the forte?!

Then Saturday, we went into down where something was definitely going down. First off, a major street was closed down and replaced by all these make shift basketball courts in the middle of the street. I don't know if there's a basketball game coming up or if that's just what happens when they decide to party because either way, Lithuanians love basketball. More importantly though, musicians were playing everywhere! It was awesome. Seriously, there was a jam fest going on every 20 feet or so. Elise and I came prepared with her guitar and my uke. Mostly, we just walked around looking cool with our instruments. Yeah, I do feel cool wearing my uke on my shoulder. I'll admit it. Eventually though, we found a quieter spot in the park and played, which was fine with me because I'm still just learning so I can only play so many songs and it was nice just to relax after a lot of walking around. It was cool though. Some pedestrians took pictures with us and there was this one cute little girl in particular who wanted to look at the ukulele. You don't get many of those around here. I don't have a lot of pictures or anything from that day so I just randomly played a song tonight and recorded it. Fair warning though, it's not very good. And that's not me being modest. My palms were really sweaty and I didn't bother warming up or getting into it. But here it goes:

Waiting at the bus stop to head downtown

We then finished off the day by finding this Italian restaurant which looks small but then opens up into this courtyard and was delicious.

A WHOLE LOT OF PICTURES

A Jewish Synagogue. Lots of Jewish history here in Vilnius. In fact, there's a lot of controversy because the Jews want the buildings back that were taken during WWII but there's no way they're getting it back. I find it a little ironic given the circumstances in Israel.

Random egg. We tried but we can't quite figure out what it's for

The Gates of Dawn. 9 Gates were originally built in the 1500's when Vilnius was working on its fortifications. This is the only one that remains

Other side of the gates

An awesome woodwork shop we found!

See. I can make friends.

The shop has this awesome motorcycle sitting outside of it

K if I could take this home, I seriously would and throw a deer skin over it or something. I love it

Lots of fun tools that I have no idea how to use. Some people are just much more skilled than me.

Awesome table outside the shop! 

I felt like such a stalker trying to get this picture. I tried to be super nonchalant and look like I was just trying to get the steeple but I don't think I was that discreet

Hot chocolate vending machine. Uh why aren't these all over America?!

The beginnings of a 3D drawing in the Akropolis Mall

Giant, half finished stadium. The Soviets started building it and never finished. Huh.

The Most Awkward Video Like Ever

Don't Watch With Sensitive Ears

Bathrooms and Jello Cheese. An Exclusive Video Just for You

GO TO CHURCH!

I know I've been pretty bad at this whole blogging thing lately and I do apologize for that. I will strive to be better. Last week was a great week! I turned 20, which is just plain weird. I don't really have much to show for having lived for 20 decades. I don't drive, I don't smoke or drink and if I were America, I couldn't even if I wanted to, and I don't care enough to go buy dry ice. I might was well just perpetually be 17, which doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. My fellow teachers were very sweet though and surprised me with a cake. And not just any cake. A CHERRY CHIP CAKE!
  

And on top of that, I currently have more Coca-Cola than I ever should. Everyone knows I'm a bit of an addict, especially here. Coke has become my comfort go-to. I bought a 2 liter Wednesday night to hold me through my homesickness during my birthday (Yes, I missed you guys). Then the morning of, Dima shows up to Russian lessons with another 2 Liter for me. And then the girls, had ANOTHER 2 Liter waiting for me along side my cake. I no longer feel justified in purchasing Coke when we go out to eat knowing I have 6 liters of it sitting at home. That's a lot of caffeine. And we all know how I am on caffeine.

Dima also played us this song for my birthday. It's a crocodile. And a really weird song. And yeah. You'll just have to watch it yourself.

It would take an eternity to re-cap everything that happened last week, especially given my tendency of being detail-oriented, but some more highlights of the week included exploring Old Town, seeing the Presidential Palace, seeing both the Avengers and Titanic in 3D and on the same day, and playing the ukulele with my little students. Funny story from yesterday though: So after sacrament, Areil, our head teacher, wasn't feeling too well. The poor little bug has caught my little bug that put me out last week. Furthermore, I had a headache, which was only made worse by listening to the headsets given to us to listen to the translation of church, and Hillary wanted to come home to skype her family. Thus, we decided to go catch the next bus with every intent to just come home and crash. 5-2 minutes before our bus arrives though, we realized that we had left the keys with the other two girls. But the walk back to church isn't exactly short when you're in heels and not feeling well plus it was super cold. So we decided to head back but just go grab lunch at Charlie's Pizza next to our apartment building till the other two girls get home.

It seemed perfect. Charlie's is this little pizza parlor themed after Charlie Chaplin. After getting off the bus, we immediately went over seeking refuge from the cold. We order, we eat, it's delicious. I really enjoy the pizza at good ole Charlie's. But apparently, I have absolutely no luck there.

Let me break this down. I have been to Charlie's a grand total of 3 times. The first time, I was screamed at by a Russian. The second time, the waiter next down the coca-cola bottle sitting next to me. The third time, this time, I believed I had my debit card in my wallet and turns out I didn't. And it just so happens that Hillary forgot she didn't have money with her either. So we all sat there stunned and frantically searching out purses and wallets for any spare change. We managed to gather together 26 of the 34 litas our meal priced. We sat there unsure of what to do. Luckily, church was almost over so I called the other girls and told them to get on the next bus. They left church but unfortunately missed the bus. Meanwhile, afraid of getting kicked out of the restaurant, we decided while we waited for Elise and Janese to come to our rescue, we better preoccupy ourselves. So we ordered a single thing of ice cream and literally ate it as slowly as possible, taking the tiniest bites of ice cream imaginable. Yes, we ordered more food because we couldn't pay for our food. It made sense at the time.

Janese and Elise on the other side of town were stranded with none of our regular buses coming any time soon. Soon I get a phone call from them where they proceeded to tell me that they've decided to just get on a random bus and try to find some place familiar to get off. That really freaked me out. But it actually worked out. They got off at a nearby mall and caught the next bus which took them right next to Charlie's. They made it to us and saved us and we were finally able to eat our ice cream at a normal pace. The moral of the story is though 1. Never leave church early and 2. Always double check your wallets. Cheers!

Rainy Rainy Day

So anyone who knows me ought to know that I love playing in the rain. And let me tell you, it's been pretty rainy here in Lithuania the past few days. Janese was kind enough to indulge me (actually, she initiated it which makes it that just more awesome) and the two of us went out and played accompanied by my water proof camera! I loved it, though I'm sure the people around us probably didn't. Lithuanians are pretty quiet folk and were being anything but as we sang at the top of our lungs, particularly what's become our theme song here:

Great song. And no old ladies came and yelled at us so I guess we're good. Here's some of my favorite moments from what ensued: